DUNMORE - When his overwhelmed team gathered around him in front of the bench just moments after the horn sounded to end the first quarter, Wyoming Valley West coach George Reimiller delivered a message it didn't take a college graduate to understand.

"Guys," he said, "this game started eight minutes ago."

If they had another eight-tenths of a second at the end, the Spartans might have pulled off the unthinkable.

Third-seeded Scranton scored the first 15 points of the game en route to a dominant first quarter. It still needed Sadeed Johnson's bank shot with 21 seconds left to hold off a furious rally by the sixth-seeded Spartans that fell just short in a 51-49 Knights win on Thursday night in the first round of the District 2-4 Class AAAA subregional tournament at Dunmore High School.

Cody Miller led the Knights with 16 points, including four 3-pointers, and Kyle Pieczynski provided the inside presence they needed with 12 points on 6 for 6 shooting. Sean Padden also added 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

The Knights will face second-seeded Williamsport in the semifinals Saturday at 2 p.m. at Berwick High School.

In all likelihood, it won't be as crazy a game as the one they and the Spartans authored.

"We've been gritty all year long," Scranton coach Tony Battaglia said. "We've competed really hard. I'm really proud of our guys, but we knew they had good shooters. They got a hot hand and got themselves back in the game."

Johnson and the Knights did their best to shoot them out of it in that first quarter, grabbing a 19-5 lead keyed by Johnson's seven points and five more from Miller.

But Spartans guard Jamie Calloway, as Battaglia expected, remained undaunted, firing 3-pointers and scoring 12 points in the second quarter to cut the Knights' lead to 27-24 at the break.

That's when the craziness began.

The Spartans claimed the lead less than two minutes into the second half, when Calloway completed a three-point play that made it 28-27. But Scranton closed the half on an 18-12 run, with Miller scoring eight and Padden banking in a 3-pointer at the buzzer from just a few feet inside the midcourt stripe.

"We really needed that," Miller said.

That turned a 42-40 game into a five-point Knights lead, and after Jayvon Nickson took a pass from Pieczynski for an easy bucket inside, Scranton held a six-point edge with 4:41 to go. But the Spartans had one more comeback in them.

Mike Sands hit a jump shot, Calloway hit a pair of free throws and Steve Doroskiewicz hit a layup to tie the game at 49 with 1:33 left. That's when Johnson, who had a game-high six assists, got the final break either team would need.

He dribbled toward the hoop and, after a defender fell, he had an open look that he banked in from the block.

Wyoming Valley West's last chance to tie it, which came with 0.7 seconds left and after a Scranton inbounds pass hit the ceiling for a dead ball, went by the wayside when the ball slipped through the target's hands and went out of bounds.

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